Book description
In a renovated Italian palace set above the blue of the sea, the
Junoesque figure of Mrs Aldwinkle moves among her guests. These include
a poet who earns his living editing The Rabbit Fancier's Gazette; a
popular novelist who records every detail of her affair with another
guest as future literary material; an aging philosopher who pursues a
wealthy yet mentally-disabled heiress and a pair of na-ve and charming
young lovers. Deliciously satirical, Those Barren Leaves bites the hands
of those who dare to posture or feign sophistication and is as comically
fresh today as when it was first published. Aldous Huxley was born on
26th July 1894 near Godalming, Surrey. He began writing poetry and short
stories in his early twenties, but it was his first novel, 'Crome
Yellow' (1921), which established his literary reputation. This was
swiftly followed by 'Antic Hay' (1923), 'Those Barren Leaves' (1925) and
'Point Counter Point' (1928) - bright, brilliant satires in which Huxley
wittily but ruthlessly passed judgement on the shortcomings of
contemporary society. For most of the 1920s Huxley lived in Italy and an
account of his experiences there can be found in 'Along The Road'
(1925). The great novels of ideas, including his most famous work 'Brave
New World' (published in 1932 this warned against the dehumanising
aspects of scientific and material 'progress') and the pacifist novel
'Eyeless in Gaza' (1936) were accompanied by a series of wise and
brilliant essays, collected in volume form under titles such as 'Music
at Night' (1931) and 'Ends and Means' (1937). In 1937, at the height of
his fame, Huxley left Europe to live in California, working for a time
as a screenwriter in Hollywood. As the West braced itself for war,
Huxley came increasingly to believe that the key to solving the world's
problems lay in changing the individual through mystical enlightenment.
The exploration of the inner life through mysticism and hallucinogenic
drugs was to dominate his work for the rest of his life. His beliefs
found expression in both fiction ('Time Must Have a Stop', 1944 and
'Island', 1962) and non-fiction ('The Perennial Philosophy', 1945, 'Grey
Eminence', 1941 and the famous account of his first mescalin experience,
'The Doors of Perception', 1954. Huxley died in California on 22nd
November 1963.
